Bellary forests, water bodies ravaged

The most awaited scam report of the state will be released anytime now, but one of its worst environmental disasters — linked to the scam — is being kept under wraps. Principal investigator of the Bellary mining scam U V Singh told TOI that government bodies, especially the Karnataka Pollution Control Board, have completely failed in their role.

Environmental degradation in this region in terms of plundering forest land and complete violation of air and water pollution standards have been devastating . The KSPCB barely documented the violations, though it acknowledged that the suspended particulate matter levels in most zones was 40% higher then normal limits.

"Pollution levels are higher than normal in many pockets. But we have managed to do only a quarterly analysis since we don't have enough manpower. We had threatened these mining c o m p a n i e s with prosecution . This is because of the concentrated movement of trucks laden with ore in many regions," KSPCB chairman A S Sadashivaiah told The Times of India.

Despite enormous evidence of the violation of environmental laws, KSPCB did not carry out a source apportionment study; neither did it document the violations that would provide substantial evidence in court. Rather late, KSPCB now plans to get each mine owner to set up a continuous air and water quality system that would be tracked by KSPCB from Bangalore.

FOREST PLUNDERED, RIVERS DEAD

As many as 98 of 148 mines in Bellary are located on forest land. The Lokayukta report, that will this time also focus on dereservation of forest land, will open the lid on the huge area being misused.

"The loss is particularly to forests. There are as many as 124 mining leases on 9750 ha of land, mostly forest land. This excludes encroachments, so imagine the extent," he said.

Apart from this, tanks and natural streams are polluted. There is evidence of perennial rivers drying up and complete devastation of roads and other infrastructure due to transportation of ore, Singh added.

"I also consider social unrest and hooliganism to be environmental impacts and these have increased drastically. The KSPCB and forest department have failed completely. KSPCB had filed some cases in 2004 and 2005 but never pursued them. The environment impact assessments are faulty with no real data," he added.

Times View The ecological damage in Bellary could be far worse than it appears, and the KSPCB should take the blame for it. As the state's nodal pollution control agency, it has failed to spot and fix widespread environmental damage due to mining in the region. It needs to take stock of the situation at least now and roll out damage-control measures quickly.